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Mike Petke Named Red Bulls Manager

By on January 24, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |

The New York Red Bulls announced today that they have named Mike Petke head coach effective immediately. Petke had been serving as head coach on an interim basis for the last few weeks and even handled the clubs’ SuperDraft.

The 36-year old just finished his second season as an assistant coach on New York’s staff after a long playing career. He joined the coaching ranks in 2011 following a 13-year career that included two playing stints with the club from 1998-2002 and 2008-10. He holds the current club record for games played, with 169 (196 in all competitions), games started (158 regular season) and minutes played (14,060 regular season).

“Mike is very passionate about our club and has shown us that he has the leadership and organizational qualities to be our head coach,” said Red Bulls Sporting Director Andy Roxburgh. “He is a terrific servant for this club, from being a top player to most recently heading our reserve squad. Mike has earned this opportunity and he will have the full support of our staff to help ensure the team’s success. We believe that his experience both as a player and coach in American soccer will be a significant asset as we head into the 2013 season.”

Petke is another former player and in a long line of younger coaches getting a shot in MLS. Petke joins the ranks of Ben Olsen, Oscar Pareja, Jay Heaps, Jason Kreis and even guys like Preki, Jesse Marsch and Robin Fraser as former players that are now coaches.

He doesn’t have coaching experience outside of being an assistant but he does know the league and how it works. Something that can’t be said for previous Red Bulls managers.

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, MLS, New York Red Bulls

Toronto Making Coaching Changes, Again

By on January 8, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |

I want to say I am shocked by this news but really when it comes to Toronto FC, anything can and does happen. Each year it seems as though the Reds get a new boss and it 2013 will be no different.

The club sent out a media advisory for a “major announcement” that is schedule for Tuesday morning. Yes, you read that correct, a major announcement, in the quotes and everything.

According to a report yesterday by Soccer By Ives, the club is set to remove Paul Mariner from his coaching duties and place former D.C. United defender Ryan Nelsen as the club’s new manager. This comes just hours after the news that technical manager Bob de Klerk has also been let go.

Crazy right? Nelsen has been playing in the EPL for the last few years with Blackburn Rovers and most recently with Queen Park Rangers. He spent five seasons in D.C. and won a MLS Cup in 2004. He also captained the New Zealand national team at the 2010 World Cup, in which they were the only squad to finish the tournament unbeaten.

He won’t be a player coach from what others are saying.

This is a fairly big change for Toronto. Going to a new coach that has no coaching experience is a massive change. At least you can argue that Nelsen has MLS experience and knows the league even though he left MLS at a much different time in the league’s history. There were fewer clubs and no Designated Players at the time.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Mariner after all of this. Does he stay on with the club? Does he go away completely? Time will tell.

 

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, MLS, Toronto FC

Jesse Marsch and Montreal Part Ways

By on November 5, 2012 | Follow @WVHooligan |

Jesse Marsch won’t be on the Montreal sidelines anymore. (Getty Images)

In what may be on of the bigger stories of the weekend, and definitely one that few saw coming. The Montreal Impact and head coach Jesse Marsch announced on Saturday that they were going their separate ways.

“I’m leaving the club by mutual agreement,” Marsch announced during a press conference alongside owner Joey Saputo and sporting director Nick de Santis. “It’s not easy with the relationships that we’ve built, but for me it’s the right decision.

“Looking ahead, we realized that while we had the same goals, we do not share the same philosophy,” Marsch told reporters. “This is first and foremost a question of respect for the club, what it has accomplished, and where it is heading in the future. I had several discussions with Joey and Nick to see if we could make it work, and the conclusion was that an amicable split is the best solution going forward.”

The Impact compiled a 12-16-6 season in their first MLS campaign and the 42 points were 11 short of the fifth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Assistants Mike Sorber, Denis Hamlett, Mauro Biello and Philippe Eullaffroy will take over the reins of the club on an interim basis.

According to Saputo, the failure to qualify to the playoffs in their expansion season had nothing to do with the decision.

As quick of a decision as this was for both sides, good of the team and coach to get it done at this point in their offseason and not four months from now in the preseason.

There was an apparent riff between the coach and some of the veteran players like Marco Di Vaio, Alessandro Nesta and a couple others according to some reports. Marsch’s comments about that riff was brief as he basically said no comment on the matter. In a way it sounded like that was a bigger part of this decision by the management in charge.

But the fact remains Marsch is gone from the bench after a pretty good expansion season. Montreal exceeded expectations by a couple of miles for most people around the league, including myself. Does Marsch head back to the west coast and take over Chivas USA when that job comes available? Or will he go elsewhere? If anything he’d be a great assistant to have on the bench for some MLS squad.

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, MLS, Montreal Impact

Coaching Hot Seat Full As MLS Heads Into Summer

By on May 31, 2012 | Follow @WVHooligan |

It has been one of those seasons already for Peter Nowak. (Getty Images)

It’s a slow week in Major League Soccer. One league game, a couple international games on the menu for the national team(s) in the area and some US Open Cup games.

Most of the clubs in MLS have played at least a third of their season slate with only a couple stragglers at the end that have played just 10 or 11 games so far. For the most part we can say we have a good enough sample going into the summer that we know where teams, the players and the coaches stand.

For some teams, things are looking good. But for others, this could end up being a season worth forgetting.

At the beginning of the year I wrote about a couple coaches that I thought would be either gone/fired/whatever by now and none of them are even sniffing the coaching hot seat at the moment. Good fortune, strong moves in the offseason and good play overall has helped those coaches out.

The same can’t be said for the following group though.  Continue Reading →

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, MLS

Panic Mode Settling In The East?

By on March 21, 2012 | Follow @WVHooligan |

Looks like it could be a long year for Peter Nowak. (Getty Images)

I know folks like myself and other writers out there didn’t make this one easy going into the season. We all kept saying the Eastern Conference was the weaker side and how it would struggle against the West.

After two weeks of the new season, that statement rings true. Outside of Kansas City and Houston – who are both off to strong 2-0-0 starts – nearly everyone else in the East has stumbled out of the gate. I’ll ignore Chicago and Montreal for the moment too. The Fire have only played a single game and it was on the road while Montreal is an expansion team, and we can’t expect the world from them yet.

The same can go for Toronto FC and the Columbus Crew. The Trillium Cup rivals have both only played a single game in league play as well but neither were good in the process. Toronto has had two extra CCL games to their name which makes me want to leave them out of this discussion. Should their league play continue to be dreadful in a month or two, I’ll talk about it then. Columbus should bounce back in my mind this weekend as they host Montreal.

So that leaves the likes of the Philadelphia Union, D.C. United, the New York Red Bulls and the New England Revolution. All are 0-2-0 with negative goal differential. Continue Reading →

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, DC United, MLS, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Philadelphia Union

Rapids, Smith Part Ways

By on November 7, 2011 | Follow @WVHooligan |

Gary Smith is now out as head coach of the Colorado Rapids. (Getty Images)

You could see the writing on the wall with this for several weeks. Gary Smith was not happy and neither were the folks above him with the Colorado Rapids.

Today, they made it official as the club announced they would be parting ways with the only head coach in their club history to guide them to a MLS Cup.

“After meeting with Gary, we decided it would be in the best interest of both parties to move in a different direction,” said Colorado Rapids Managing Director Jeff Plush. “We’d like to thank Gary for his many contributions to the Colorado Rapids organization. He was instrumental in the Rapids winning our first-ever MLS Cup last year, and we wish him nothing but the best as he explores new opportunities.”

Smith had a 39-31-35 (W-L-T) record with the Rapids over three seasons.

Again, this isn’t a shocker. Smith and Technical Director Paul Bravo were not on the same page with one another for months. That even made headlines in Denver.

Colorado will now go on a coaching search, something they haven’t had to do in a while (Smith was an assistant under former boss Fernando Clavijo). Smith will likely be a candidate for jobs like New England or possibly overseas.

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, Colorado Rapids, MLS
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Time To Dive Into The Coaching Hot Seat

By on August 16, 2011 | Follow @WVHooligan |

Hans Backe and New York are on the brink of disaster. (Getty Images)

It has been a while since I last updated my coaching hot seat post. In fact I don’t believe I’ve updated it since Carlos de los Cobos was about to be let go in the Windy city earlier this summer.

There really shouldn’t be too many surprising names on this list below. Some are on it due to the league passing them by in terms of how things are structured now. Others are on here because their owners don’t put enough behind them to help them out. And then there are those that had such high expectations placed upon them at the start of the season.

1. Hans Backe (New York Red Bulls) – In New York, the coaching carousel goes and goes. Backe is really the first coach in a long while to last more than a year with this club and it seems as though two years may be all he will get if this club doesn’t start winning. His offense is fine but he hasn’t been able to put together a solid enough defense over the last year and a half to really make things worthwhile. If things don’t change in a hurry with this club they could somehow miss the playoff this season. It’s hard to believe that this club, with so much promise and talent, could miss the playoffs. Remember when Backe was talking about how important things like the Supporter’s Shield were at the start of the year? Seems like a distance memory now.

2. Frank Yallop (San Jose Earthquakes) – This falls into a two prong kind of thing for me. For one, he and GM John Doyle probably need to go if this club fails to reach the playoffs this year. And two, this club needs a restart in a bad way. Yallop hasn’t had true success in this league since 2003, when times were drastically different and the competition was very thin. The club barely reached the playoffs last year and had it not been for a shocking win in New York and a crazy goal-scoring run by Chris Wondolowski, the team likely wouldn’t have had any hype going into this season. Injuries have played a part of this season for the Quakes for sure but at some point its also coming down to coaching. The club didn’t make any splash going into the season and waited until their season looked to be on the brink of a collapse before they made a move this summer. They’re still in the hunt for the playoffs but just barely. Things need to change regardless though in San Jose.

3. Steve Nicol (New England Revolution) – One of those where the league has passed him by a bit and his owners fail to pour any money into this club to help him out. I think we’re seeing more and more how important it was for Nicol to have Paul Mariner by his side too. Since Mariner left a couple years ago the Revs have been in nothing but a declining position. I bring it up because I see some of the moves Toronto is making right now and they clearly have Mariner’s finger prints on them.

But back to Nicol, he’s a great coach here. Don’t get me wrong, the talent has been there with this club over the years but in a way Nicol has run out of gambles and crazy moves that somehow worked a few years ago that don’t come close now. The Revs need to go on a ridiculous run to reach the playoffs this season and judging the way things have gone this year, it just isn’t going to happen.

4. Peter Vermes (Sporting Kansas City) – Before KC fans go crazy, hear me out. Vermes did a good job getting his club from a ridiculous road trip to start the season to a place where they could reach the playoffs. Key word there is could. With so many home games left and the club tying many of their first home games against fairly weak sides, it takes a little bit of the excitement out of KC opening that beautiful stadium. I still believe this club is going in a solid direction but I’m not sure Vermes is the right person to lead the charge. I’ve said for a couple months that something is just lacking with this club and its a reason why they aren’t blowing people away with that offense that should be scoring goals by the buckets.

Other not far away:

Frank Klopas (Chicago Fire) – He’s an interim coach, I know, but at some point he’s gotta hand over the keys to this club to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Dominic Kinnear (Houston Dynamo) – The Orange are lucky to be in the Eastern Conference right now, that much is true.

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, Featured, MLS
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Backe Given Vote Of Confidence

By on August 8, 2011 | Follow @WVHooligan |

At 6-6-12 on the season, New York Red Bulls general manager Eric Soler has given head coach Hans Backe a vote of confidence. Michael Lewis of BigAppleSoccer.com is reporting that the club has no plans on removing Backe from his coaching post during the remainder of this season.

“Absolutely,” Soler said if Backe will direct the team the rest of the season.

“He does, in my opinion, as good a job as anybody can. It’s not about Hans or not Hans. This is about the team effort, starting with myself, with Hans, the coaching staff around the team and the players. We have a responsibility within the whole group to turn it around. I think we can.”

Oh the dreaded vote of confidence. We see it nearly every season. I wrote at the start of the year that Backe would be on the hot seat as long as the club was not doing as well as expected. With a team built around star players it isn’t shocking to see him have this on his shoulders as the club has underperformed all year long. I think there was maybe a month or so back at the start of the year when the club last looked dominant.

Right now for this club it is MLS Cup or bust. Anything less than that will likely mean Backe (and who knows even Soler) will be on his way out.

With only 30 points on the year, just barely good enough for 3rd place in the Eastern Conference, the Red Bulls cannot afford to drop easy points here. Ten games remain on their schedule this year and with tough ones ahead against LA, Dallas, Salt Lake, Philadelphia and a surging Kansas City squad, the Red Bulls won’t have it easy.

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, Featured, MLS, New York Red Bulls
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2011 MLS Previews: Coaching Hot Seat

By on March 11, 2011 | Follow @WVHooligan |

With the new season upon us here, it is always a good time to take a quick glance at which team’s coaches could be on the hot seat last year. Over the last few years I’ve monitored the Coaching Hot Seat fairly close and for the most part I’d like to say I’ve done pretty good at forecasting when coaches are close to getting canned (I’ve really only been off on one or two).

You may be thinking that going into this season that there really aren’t any big candidates for the coaching hot seat. Well, think again. I will say this year is different in that we have two new clubs and a couple new managers taking over other clubs. But there are a couple coaches out there that could be coaching for their jobs this season.

Think I’m way off on one of these below or missing a coach that should be on here, let me know below.

1. Carlos de los Cobos (Chicago Fire) – I’ll be rather honest about the Fire here, I was a bit shocked they brought him back after a pretty dismal 2010. The amount of talent that has left this club since he took over is pretty big (then again if you go even further back the amount of shocking). I believe if the Fire aren’t doing well by the middle of the season here in an Eastern Conference that is widely viewed to be pretty open for at least two of the three automatic playoff spots, then you could see a pink slip given in the Windy City. Fire fans deserve a winner there and they certainly will not put up with another playoff-less season.

2. Steve Nicol (New England Revolution) – I do feel a bit odd putting his name down here but let’s face the facts a bit here, the Revs have been passed up over the last two or three seasons by smarter clubs. Nicol built a solid blueprint for success in MLS a few years ago but more and more clubs are taking that model and are improving it in ways Nicol and his staff can’t compete with. Yes injuries have played a huge part but then again so have some roster moves. While I think some big pressure will be on Nicol to get his club back into the playoffs this year, I do still think that a pink slip could be another year away in New England. Gotta remember the Krafts (New England’s owners) are all about keeping things as stable as possible. I can’t imagine they’ll want to deal with a coaching change in midseason either but they may have to if the club continues to regress the way its been doing.

3. Robert Warzycha (Columbus Crew) – Hard to imagine any club blow up a roster the way he did and not be under some heat. If it works out he’ll be touted as a genius but if the Crew slide into the no playoff zone this season then he’ll be a failure that forced one of the best players MLS has ever seen out the door in Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

Others possibly with heat:

Now this group is more about the coaches that have pressure on them no matter what due to where they coach. And mostly it is due to who they coach and their club’s history of firing coaches.

1. Hans Backe (New York Red Bulls) – I have to imagine there is a lot of pressure on Backe to win a lot this year not matter what. I don’t see the pink slip coming out for him unless for some reason the Red Bulls mail it in somehow this season and fail to reach the playoffs, which shouldn’t happen. Still a coach in New York is one to always keep an eye out for given the pressure to win there.

2. Aron Winter (Toronto FC) – I don’t even know where to begin with this one, should upper management decide out of the blue that they don’t want to wait it out for Winter’s system to take over  for the long term, then he could be outed. My gut tells me the fans will complain more than the management will though about the Reds this season.

3. Robin Fraser (Chivas USA) – The AmeriGoats are nearly as bad as New York and Toronto at canning a coach without given them their just due. I don’t see it happening with Fraser after one season though. Things have to go really bad in a hurry for Chivas USA to think of getting rid of Fraser.

Update: I added Warzycha to the list above…I had him on an initial list I was putting together and then completely left him off. Thanks to a couple Crew fans for point it out.

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, Featured, MLS
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Cummins Out As TFC Manager

By on October 27, 2009 | Follow @WVHooligan |

Not a real shocker here since Toronto FC got spanked on the final day of the season when they needed a win to reach the post season. Toronto FC announced today that interim head coach Chris Cummins will not be returning for the upcoming 2010 MLS season. Effective immediately, the search begins for a new head coach.

“We have decided to move forward without Chris for next season,” said manager, director of soccer Mo Johnston. “We want to thank Chris for his contribution to the club over the last year and a half, and wish him all the best in the future. For us, the work now begins on finding a new coach, and getting him in here before pre-season starts February 1st.”

Again, it doesn’t come to much of a surprise to most folks. Toronto needs to find some stability though moving forward and Cummins just wasn’t the right guy for the job. I would imagine that fans will expect a big hire for this position as no one has been able to get things going in the right direction with this club after three years in the league. I would say that this season was a decent step in the right direction but getting to the playoffs was certainly a must for this bunch and it didn’t happen.

Continue Reading · · in Coaching Hot Seats, MLS, News and Rumors, Toronto FC